Rainbow Friends Sues Online Sellers Identified as “Counterfeit Network”
Hey there, Stockman & Poropat, PLLC here with information crucial for online sellers active in the e-commerce space. Bryan and Garrett Fletcher, owners of the Rainbow Friends trademarks, are suing online sellers yet again for intellectual property infringement. Due to the Rainbow Friends video game’s global popularity, the trademark owners are attempting to protect the value of their brand.
The Plaintiff has allegedly documented rampant sales of counterfeit goods to United States consumers. Rainbow Friends filed the lawsuit so as to combat these counterfeiting efforts. For contextual purposes, below we’ll share a cross-section of excerpts from the legal complaint…
Details of Rainbow Friends Lawsuit 25-cv-03685
Rainbow Friends is a survival horror game that involves an unnamed protagonist who is kidnapped during a school trip to an amusement park. The player must solve puzzles and complete tasks in order to progress further, all while avoiding the game’s main antagonist, Blue, a large humanoid figure. Blue and other characters associated with the game have gained significant popularity and are invaluable assets of Plaintiff.
Plaintiff has used its RAINBOW FRIENDS trademark (the “RAINBOW FRIENDS Trademark”) for many years in connection with the Rainbow Friends video game and related line of Rainbow Friends Products and has continuously sold products under the RAINBOW FRIENDS Trademark. As a result of this long-standing use, strong common law trademark rights have amassed in the RAINBOW FRIENDS Trademark.
Plaintiff has not licensed or authorized Defendants to use the RAINBOW FRIENDS Trademark or copy or distribute the Rainbow Friend Copyrighted Works, and none of the Defendants are authorized retailers of genuine Rainbow Friends Products.
Many Defendants also deceive unknowing consumers by using the RAINBOW FRIENDS Trademark without authorization within the content, text, and/or meta tags of their e- commerce stores to attract various search engines crawling the internet looking for websites relevant to consumer searches for Rainbow Friends Products.
April 2025 Rainbow Friends IP Infringement Lawsuit
Ok, so maybe you just received notice that you’re one of the Defendants named in the new Rainbow Friends lawsuit. If you haven’t been involved in a trademark lawsuit like this in the past, you may not know what to do first. Consider the response to the lawsuit a requirement! In essence, you need to acknowledge the lawsuit with a response that you’ll submit to the court. Since the federal court is where this trademark action was filed, you know that the matter is certainly serious.
What may happen if you fail to respond is that the court will issue a Default Judgment! We don’t care to have any of the affected online sellers have to take a loss in the form of a DJ. Those outcomes can be costly and extremely troublesome to overturn, if at all possible. That’s why the Defendants should just submit the response in the first place in a timely fashion!
Here’s the most serious aspect of this latest Rainbow Friends trademark action: the temporary restraining order! The Plaintiff will have the court approve a restraining order and apply it to the Defendants’ online seller accounts. This will mean that your Amazon and other marketplace accounts will be frozen. And, the named e-commerce operators won’t be able to access the money in their accounts. The freeze is no joke, as it could tie up funds in the hundreds, thousands, or even millions! You did the incredible hard work of building your consumer base, research and development, advertising, and all the rest of it. You’ve successfully sold products to satisfied consumers and may even have an overwhelming amount of top reviews. Don’t let this lawsuit derail your entire e-commerce business!
What Are Sellers Getting Sued for Trademark and Copyright Infringement?
What does any given named seller have to do with the alleged sale of counterfeit Rainbow Friends products anyway? That all remains to be seen! The lawsuit itself consists of trademark infringement allegations. Anything that the Plaintiff claims the Defendants may have done remains an unproved potentiality. Given the severity of the allegations and the legal context, it’s likely worthwhile to protect your own e-commerce business by hiring your own attorney. And we trust you’ll select our firm at Stockman & Poropat, PLLC!
The owners of the Rainbow Friends intellectual property took the legal action they did because of what they believe based on gathered information. Meaning, the Plaintiff has asserted that a collective group of internationally-based online sellers, “the Defendants,” have worked as a sort of network to sell unauthorized products. It’s within the realm of these beliefs and allegations that the lawsuit exists. As such, the Plaintiff claims that the sellers’ collective unlawful behavior has damaged the value of the Rainbow Friends intellectual property. Thus, they’ve gone forward with the lawsuit and the associated legal actions contained therein (such as the temporary restraining order). And, just as Rainbow Friends has their legal team, so should you!!
Don’t feel pressured to take a direct settlement offer from Rainbow Friends! That can sometimes be presented by Plaintiffs in Schedule A lawsuits like these. Why shouldn’t you buckle under any such possible pressure? Because you may be turning your back on other options that will leave your business in a better position. The average settlement percentage with brands in these cases hovers at around 60%. If you were to accept such an offer, you’d be handing over almost half of the money in your seller accounts to the Plaintiff! At Stockman & Poropat, PLLC, we believe in you and want to protect your business.
Contact our team at Stockman & Poropat, PLLC today for a free initial consultation!
Download the legal complaint below:
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